Seymour Hersh Has Record of False Claims, Bad Journalism

Yated Ne'eman - January 22, 1999 - D.D. Levitin

Seymour Hersh, author of a harsh attack on Jonathan Pollard in the New
Yorker, has a long record of making unsubstantiated allegations and
using sources that have later been exposed as unreliable, according to
a study prepared by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and
distributed to every member of congress and leaders of Jewish
organizations.

In fact, Hersh's main "new" allegation against Pollard, that U.S.
secrets that Pollard gave to Israel were then given by Israel to the
Soviet Union, is not a new allegation at all, but is simply a recycled
smear that Hersh first used in 1991. The source for the allegation Ari
Ben-Menashe, was exposed as a fraud.

The AIPAC newsletter "Near East Report" (Jan. 6, 1992) describing
Hersh's 1991 book "The Samson Option" noted that one Ari Ben-Menashe
"was the source for Hersh's wild accusations that Israel gave secrets to
the Soviets that were stolen by Jonathan Pollard."

Ben-Menashe has been described by the Jerusalem Post (March 6, 1992) as
a "notorious chronic liar." Newsweek - which is hardly sympathetic to
Israel - wrote about Ben-Menashe: "Much of what Ben-Menashe says does
not seem to check out." (Nov. 4, 1991) Newsweek checked Secret Service
logs to see if then Vice-President George Bush could have been in Paris
on October 19, 1980, the day Ben-Menashe claims he saw Bush secretly
meet with Iranian officials to arrange a delay of the release of U.S.
hostages in Iran; Newsweek found that on October 19, the logs show that
Bush gave a speech before the Zionist Organization of America at the
Capital Hilton [in Washington D.C. ]"

Steven Emerson the award-winning investigative journalist has described
Ben-Menashe as an "abject liar." Emerson has also pointed out that over
the years, Hersh has made numerous demonstrably false claims, including
that "he was a commander of the Israeli raid to free hijacked airline
passengers at Entebbe in 1976, that he planted a homing device in the
Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak just before the Israeli attack in
1981... and that he had declined an offer to become head of the Mossad."
(Wall Street Journal, Nov. 27 1991)

In November 1990, "ABC News gave Ben-Menashe a lie detector test
concerning his allegations about Israel, and the Iran-Contra affair,
according to Christopher Isham, and ABC producer, Ben- Menashe failed
it." (Newsweek Nov. 11, 1991)

HERSH HAS REPEATEDLY USED UNRELIABLE SOURCES

"The Samson Option" contains, "many inaccuracies...( there is) a
single paragraph in which Hersh misspells the name of the subject, gets
the wrong date for the events he describes and misquotes the person he
is writing about" (Near East Report, Jan. 6, 1992; Forward Dec. 13,
1991) The Jerusalem Report (Nov. 7, 1991) called the Samson Option
"unreliable" and a "sham."

Just before the Samson Option was published, the London Sunday Times
sent its top investigative reporter, Peter Hounam meet with Hersh and
Ben-Menashe. In their conversation, Ben-Menashe "was caught in a lie"
about a major aspect of his claims. Hounam said to Hersh, "Look this guy
is hoaxing you. You've got to do something about it." Hounam later
commented, "It's a mystery to me that they went ahead and published that
book, knowing that so much of the material is wrong." (New Republic,
March 16, 1992)

Another one of Hersh's source's [for The Samson Option] ...was a con
man named Joe Flynn who admitted deceiving Hersh in exchange for money.
After Flynn was exposed, Hersh said he regretted not checking his facts
more carefully. 'Certainly being the victim of a hoax is not pleasant',
noted the Washington Times (Nov. 21, 1991) 'especially for a such a
fancy Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative journalist as Mr. Hersh.'
(Near East Report, Jan. 6, 1992)

Regarding Hersh's book "The Price of Power: Kisssinger in the Nixon
White House" Martin Peretz editor-in-chief of "The New Republic", has
written that "there is hardly anything [in the book] that shouldn't be
suspect (The New Republic Sept. 12, 1983)

Former Attorney General John Mitchell, a major source for Hersh's book
"The Price of Power", said that "almost every episode or statement on
Kissinger ascribed to him by Hersh [was] "a distortion, an exaggeration,
a misinterpretation, or an expletive-deleted lie" (National Review June
24, 1983)

HERSH HAS COMPARED ISRAEL TO THE NAZIS AND MADE OTHER STATEMENTS SHOWING ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS

"Hersh has apparently been fixated on bashing Israel since at least
1982, when he spoke at Hiram College" and "compared Israeli attitudes
toward Palestinians to American views toward the Vietnamese and the
Nazis' policy toward Jews." (Near East Report, January 6, 1992)

"Hersh has in general adopted the anti-Israel, world-view complete
with dark whispers about the Israel lobby in Washington... [Hersh goes
so far as to imply that] Kissinger was himself a part of the Jewish
lobby - an idea that has not previously occurred to anyone involved in
the Arab-Israeli conflict." (Commentary September 1983)

HERSH ADMITTED LYING ABOUT ASPECTS OF IRAN-CONTRA

Hersh "apologized to former National Security Council aid Howard Teich
for mistakenly saying he knew profits from Iran arms sales went to the
Contras." (U.S. News and World Report March 9, 1987)

HERSH'S QUESTIONABLE INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUE

Concerning Hersh's interviewing techniques, Martin Peretz
editor-in-chief of "The New Republic", has written that while Hersh
claims to conduct many interviews for his research, it is difficult "to
figure out what is an authentic interview and what is not. Hersh is
known for the fast and threatening, even browbeating, phone call." (The New Republic Sept. 12, 1983)